Nick Cave

Nick Cave: I have always been of the opinion that my music is unique and individual and exists beyond the realms inhabited by those who would reduce tings to mere measuring.

Nick Cave: (About his father) From the age of 12 or 13, he would read passages to me from books that he thought were good - Dostoevsky, Nabokov. But it was less a matter of what I learned from him than seeing what literature did for him. When he talked about literature, I saw him become alive.

Nick Cave: No one will ever be able to read a book by me, or see me in a film, or read about me robbing a bank without seeing me first as a rock singer.

Nick Cave: I want to write songs that are so sad, the kind of sad where you take someone's little finger and break it in three places.

Nick Cave: The other nice thing about music is that you have music that's made by young people for young people, and music that's made for middle-aged people by middle-aged people. I feel that I've very much ceased to make music for young people. It's music made by a 40-year-old man who's accumulated a certain amount of understanding in life.

Nick Cave: I think that songs that bang on about what a happy lot this human race is and everything is full of joy, that's an alternate world. I don't mean to be depressing about these things, but I find songs like that quite strange.

Nick Cave: When the big bomb goes off, all that's going to survive are goths and cockroaches.